Videos of flowing lava

Few weeks ago while I was still in Hawaii I posted some photos of glowing red hot lava of Kilauea volcano. It was definitely the highlight of my trip to Hawaii to see a volcanic eruption and moving lava from such a close range. Unfortunately, it was the April Fools’ Day when I published these photos which made some people suspicious that I photoshopped myself onto these images. I take this as a compliment that I am either such a good photoshopper or that my photos were impressive enough that it was hard to believe that I really was there.

But how can I prove that there are no sneaky tricks? I really don’t know. I have some videos but there is only lava, not me. It apparently is just a matter of belief. But I would like to show these videos anyway. Not because they prove anything but because they demonstrate nicely how quickly lava cools, how quickly it moves, and how ropy pahoehoe forms. I apologize for the quality. My DSLR has no video capability. So I had to rely on my hand-held iPhone instead.

This video demonstrates how new lava tongues start from a small breakout of older flow that already has a solidified crust. Lava is glowing very brightly at first but its outer surface loses heat rapidly. It turns yellow a mere second or two later and yellow tone also won’t last long before red becomes dominant. Lava spreads laterally as it breaks free and finally wrinkles typical to pahoehoe lava start to form as the outer solidified crust is pushed forward by the drag of moving lava inside the lava tongue. You can see that it takes a surprisingly little time until the outer surface turns black. Lava is dense which means that we can not sink into it. You can step onto newly formed lava flow if its outer surface is not glowing anymore. I tried it without falling through the surface. However, glowing lava is soft enough so that it can be deformed with a hard hand-held object like a rock or metal rod. Stepping onto red plastic lava is probably not so good idea. I did not want to try that.

Basaltic lava can move relatively rapidly, even if the flow is very small.

Larger flow of basaltic lava (about 5 m in width). Experimenting with a lava flow like described above is only possible when the flow or tongue is very small. Lava flow like the one shown in the last video is far too big and therefore radiates too much heat. It can not be approached without a protective clothing. I was about 8-10 meters away from that.